Literary Master: Starting with Refusing to Be a Child Star

On the same weekend that "Saw" was released, another movie was also showing—a suspense thriller called "Echoes of the Abyss," which had a large budget and had been in preparation for many years.

It took nearly five years for that film to go from being greenlit to being released.

The director is a veteran who has made several well-received commercial films, and the cast includes two award-winning middle-aged actors and a very popular young actor.

The marketing budget was also several times that of "Saw".

The premiere was a grand affair, with a red carpet stretching for dozens of meters. Media press releases began half a month in advance, with headlines proclaiming, "Five years in the making, the pinnacle of domestic suspense films." One line in those press releases was widely circulated: "Echoes of the Abyss Set for Release, Head-to-Head with Saw." No one saw it as a showdown; to everyone, it was a meticulously crafted blockbuster encountering a low-budget, mass-produced product.

When the box office figures came out on the first day, "Echoes of the Abyss" undoubtedly surpassed "Saw".

The problem is that the difference is not significant. Despite having more screenings, more shows, and larger theaters, all these advantages combined resulted in a single-day box office that was only about one-tenth higher than that of "Saw".

Initially, the director of "Echoes of the Abyss" thought it was the appeal of early spring tea, but his own combination of superstars and popular actors was obviously more attractive, so he remained unmoved.

But little did I expect... what followed was a nightmare.

The initial gap seemed normal at the time, after all, they were works of different scales.

But by the second day, the gap had narrowed, and by the third day, the daily box office of the two films was almost equal.

On the fourth day, Saw overtook it.

This trend is uncommon in the industry; for a blockbuster to be overtaken by a low-budget film on the fourth day signifies a shift in word-of-mouth. Critics' reviews also confirm this trend. The initial praise for "Echoes of the Abyss" quickly turned into accusations of "pretentious mystification," "slow pacing," "too many logical flaws," and "a forced plot twist at the end."

Many reviews raised the same issue: it spent too much time creating atmosphere, but the story itself couldn't support it. The director certainly put a lot of effort into the visual language, but the script was empty; beneath the exquisite visuals lay no story to tell. One film critic wrote in a long review that has been repeatedly quoted: "Five years, they built a beautiful shell, but forgot to put a beating heart inside. For a work of art, a good story is always more important."

Meanwhile, reviews of "Saw" took a completely opposite turn. The reviews focused on the script's intricacy, telling a tightly woven story in a minimal space, relying not on jump scares but on the suspense of knowing something is going to happen but not knowing when. The ending twist was one of the cleanest and most decisive moments in the history of suspense films in recent years.

Comparing the two films side by side is like comparing two boxers in the same ring: one has flashy kung fu but is all show and no substance, while the other is truly powerful and can throw bricks.

A wave of reflection quickly swept through the industry. An article titled "Why Five Years of Effort Lost to a Few Months of Preparation" analyzed the problems with *Echoes of the Abyss*: too early initiation of the project, too many revisions, and an unstable direction. By the time filming began, it had deviated from its initial concept. The final product was like a dish that had been repeatedly reheated; it looked okay on the surface, but the core had been ruined. The article also mentioned the approach taken with *Saw*: a short timeframe from script finalization to filming completion, no repeated revisions, no last-minute changes to cater to the market, and the team's work was complete and stable; the story wasn't diluted. *Echoes of the Abyss* was different. The creators were aware of some problems in post-production, but the release date was set, marketing had been invested in, and actors' schedules were locked—there was no going back. As a result, "five years to forge a sword" went from an initial promotional slogan to a helpless label. Each time it was mentioned, expectations for the film were raised higher, making the fall all the more devastating.

The backlash from excessive hype is another wound. The fans of that popular actor did a lot of promotion before the film's release, engaging in extensive online campaigns, controlling public opinion, and recommending it, raising expectations for the film to a very high level. However, after its release, the film's reception fell short of expectations, and the contrast between criticism from casual viewers and support from fans created a rift that became an unhealable gaping wound.

The score of "Echoes of the Abyss" dropped in the first week after its release, and the score structure in the film review section was "L"-shaped. Behind these data is not the outcome of a war of public opinion, but a structural misalignment, where content with excessively high expectations encountered a reality that could not live up to those expectations.

Saw didn't have that burden. It never promised itself to be a blockbuster from the start. The trailer was short and powerful, revealing little, only ending with the line "Let's play a game." It didn't claim "this is the best of the year," nor did it promote anything like "five years in the making," and it didn't use the cast as its main selling point.

A good reputation can only be given by the audience, not bought with money.

When these messages surfaced one after another, Luo Jinnian didn't read too many comments.

He no longer needs external reviews to confirm the quality of his work. Those aren't things he needs to care about. What truly catches his attention are subtle points beyond box office and ratings, such as how several highly anticipated films released in the same period were overtaken by *Saw*, mainly because they were all trying to do "something bigger," while *Saw* only did one thing: lock itself in a room and not go out. This choice itself, in the current environment, is a very luxurious form of restraint.

"Some things take many years to make, but many more things don't. What's needed is to not go back."

After evening self-study ended, he walked out of the school gate with his backpack. Chu Qingning was waiting for him at the school gate, holding two bottles of yogurt, and handed him one. The two walked side by side on their way home. Chu Qingning asked him why he hadn't talked much today, and he said, "I was thinking about a movie. Actually, bad movies are sometimes more valuable for study than good ones."

Chu Qingning thought for a moment and said, "Will you end up like that in the future? Spending many years making a film, only to have it flop?"

Luo Jinnian thought about it seriously for a moment, "It always will. But as long as it's not because I've lost my original intention, that's fine—when I've run out of ideas, I can talk about letting the fans show up."

The streetlights cast long shadows behind them, like two rivers flowing quietly in the same direction.

Many times, Chu Qingning didn't understand what the boy in front of her was saying.

But she was always listening.